SAS chief: Must become another type of airline if dismissed pilots have to come back
In October, laid-off SAS pilots demonstrated outside the airline’s headquarters in Stockholm. The pilots felt they had been bypassed in re-employment processes.
In a major interview with Swedes Today’s Industry tells SAS’s new boss Anko van der Werff about how he went out and talked to the protesters.
– I told them that we are fighting the same battle. They are our colleagues, so we must have a dialogue. We want back those who, unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, lost their jobs, but we must become a different type of airline to get those jobs back. The market is changing right now due to the pandemic. You have to be honest about that, he says.
Manner of flexibility
Van der Werff does not say how the pilots reacted to his attempts at dialogue, but it was hardly with cheers. Almost two years of pandemic have hit the aviation industry hard, and SAS has not escaped cheaper. It has triggered conflict with the pilots also in Norway and Denmark, and similar demonstrations have been held in several places.
Twice during the pandemic, the pilot associations have said no to large and lasting cuts in exchange for the dismissed pilots getting their jobs back.
In October, DN wrote that Van der Werff has set a new deadline of three months to find a solution with the pilots in new negotiations.
Even after the pandemic, the aviation industry will face new challenges, Van der Werff believes. The top executive says he has asked hundreds of people if they want to fly more for corona than they did before, without getting a single positive response.
– We need an organization that offers greater flexibility. Going back to how it was in 2019 is not an option. Passenger flows have changed, we want more passengers in different high seasons, during the school holidays for example. Therefore, we must be able to offer more capacity in the times when passengers want to fly, he says.
Part of the plan is to set up subsidiaries with terms for pilots, in order to compete with the low-cost airlines.
SAS will now have to service tenants and repay approximately DKK 33 billion, and there are few signs that the pandemic will completely pass. On Friday afternoon, airlines and other reopening shares marked Wall Street fell as a result of a fourth wave of infections in Europe.
SAS associations to Danish LO
In Denmark, the dispute between SAS and the company’s employees has culminated in the powerful pilot association Dansk Pilotforening (DPF) joining the Danish Metal Association in the Danish LO, the Trade Union Movement’s Main Organization. The Cabin Attendants Union (CAU) did the same.
CAU has been a member of the Danish LO through another union before, while the pilot association has been outside.
However, the Aviation Personnel Association Flyvebranchens Personale Union (FPU) was a member of the Danish Trade Union Confederation before, and has been willing to enter into new agreements with SAS. The registration from competing DPF is partly due to a desire to put pressure on SAS, writes Danish The stock exchange.
– I am very interested in hearing what Lizette Risgaard (head of the Danish Trade Union Confederation, editor’s note) thinks that FPU will undercut our wage agreements, says DPF manager Henrik Thyregod to the newspaper.
Both FPU and SAS have been aware that the biggest changes in new agreements are not about pay, but how flexibly SAS can use the crew on normal working days, to get better utilization of crew and aircraft.
Earns millions in salaries on average
Like, the wage level is still being cited as an argument.
The dispute in Denmark has led FPU to share with Børsen what salaries the pilots will receive from SAS with a FPU collective agreement. The pay rise starts at 39,250 Danish kroner and goes to 87,250 Danish kroner – before tax and before various supplements and diet. This corresponds to from 52,990 to 117,793 Norwegian kroner a month, or from 636,000 to 1.4 million kroner a year.
This is the salary level for pilots through new collective agreements with FPU which established unions in SAS are fighting against.
SAS has not stated exactly what their Norwegian pilots have in salary, but according to salary statistics from SSB pilots as an occupational group had collected the eighth highest average salary in Norway last year, with 88,700 kroner a month. This corresponds to an annual salary of approximately NOK 1.1 million on average. SAS pilots formed a large part of this occupational group last year, together with colleagues in Norwegian and Widerøe.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We want to share our stuff using link that leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For further terms see here.